The Lowcountry Voice

Here is a short video I put together highlighting some of the exceptional art and creativity found at Kulture Klash 3 recently held in North Charleston on November 15th.

My daughter forwarded this to me from Ireland.

Here’s some complimentary investment advice….     

In anticipation of Halloween, I put together a clip from the behind the scenes footage of Dan Conover’s independent short film Brunch Of The Living Dead. In it we see Kathryn McGreggor, Makeup Director for the film giving a demonstration of techniques used to get a Zombie ready for about town.

Zombie Makeup Tutorial from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

You can view more of Kathryn’s handiwork by watching the entire film which can be found here.

This past weekend my good friend Dan Conover and I sat around during football and beers and talked about how creative people with talent get overlooked and those with crappy ideas seem to get the breaks when it comes to getting their ideas funded and produced. Charleston is loaded with bright creative people and technically savvy individuals that never seem to make the connections that allow quality art forms to an audience.

Personal computers, high-quality but low cost camcorders (and even phone cameras) have made it possible for anyone to put together something that can be posted to YouTube in moments. Some of these folks have become overnight celebrities because their submissions became “viral” and became immensely popular simply through word-of-mouth exposure. They weren’t professionally produced. They didn’t require funding or pre-approval by so-called “experts” in the entertainment industry. They were just simple ideas that someone thought of up and created.

How many great ideas are out there waiting to be “discovered”? I myself would love nothing more than being able to hang out with creative people, simply throwing out ideas for new forms of art, entertainment, film, video, storytelling and such. Is there such a place in this town where this form of interaction happens? Where does the common man, the starving artist, the creative introvert go to meet others of like mind?

Things have been quiet here on the Lowcountry Voice blog for the past few weeks, but I’ve had a good reason. I recently returned from a two week trip to visit family in Ireland. I’m putting together photos, video and other items of interest that I collected during my trip and will include that in an upcoming blog post.

In the meantime, here are a few photos. More photos can be found on my Flickr page.

Don

On Tuesday, Janet Conover and I joined Jack McCray to experience some wonderful Jazz music at the Footlight Players Theater in downtown Charleston. Jack is a driving force behind the local jazz community in town. He’s the author of “Charleston Jazz” and an advising member of the Jazz Artists of Charleston

We got to enjoy an afternoon and full evening of interactive workshops, lectures and stellar performances by the artists that have made Charleston a vibrant hub of jazz music in America. This particular series was called “Holy City Homecomin’”.

I’ve included two videos that offer a sample of the evening. More video will follow with highlights of “The Power of the Pulse” workshop put on by Clay Ross and an extremely informative lecture by Jack McCray called “Return To The Source”.

First is the soundcheck and performance samples from the band Gradual Lean.

Gradual Lean at Holy City Homecomin’ from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

Next up is Clay Ross and his band MATUTO (which is Brazilian slang for “country bumpkin”).

Clay Ross’ Matuto at Holy City Homecomin’ from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

Here is more video from this past Saturday at Piccolo Spoleto in Marion Square. All the tents were filled with musicians, vendors, artists, performers and more. Lots of family fun. Be sure to visit often because the lineup of events changes daily.

Piccolo Spoleto at Marion Square, Day 2 from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

Today was opening day for both the Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto here in Charleston. A large portion of the outdoor events in the Piccolo lineup are held in Marion Square in the heart of the city. I took a couple of hours around lunchtime to visit with some of the artists and vendors at the site. I will be busy shooting footage of everything I can during the festival and will have many video reports for Spoletotoday.com to follow.

Piccolo Spoleto 2008, Day 1 from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

Although it’s been happening to me all my life, this past weekend I heard voices in my head. Now before you call the men in white coats to come to lock me away, let me explain.

I’ve been a creative person as long as I can remember. My parents and immediate family members were gifted with many talents. I was surrounded by arts, crafts, woodworking projects, cooking and music. I always found myself bouncing from project to project, many times not finishing the current one in favor of starting another. My mind was a continuous flow of ideas, images and internal conversations.

My happiest times have been when I’ve opened my mind and allowed these creative “voices” to guide me. I was reminded this past weekend that I need to allow the universe to assist me.

I produce a podcast for independent artists and regularly have interviews with musicians. This week I was working on an episode featuring singer/songwriter Sheri Miller. As usually happens I record far more interview content than can fit into an hour long show. My interview with Sheri lasted well over an hour and the topics of conversation varied from music, love, relationships, angels, movies and so forth.

As I’m prone to do, I waited until Saturday to start the edit process and as expected the interview required considerable work to cut it down to size. I had set a self-imposed deadline to get it completed and the harder I tried, the more difficult it became. I was totally wrapped up in my head and the details, instead of letting things come together naturally. It was turning out to be a less than spectacular episode.

Sheri had been one of my favorite interview guests and I wanted to deliver a quality show. So rather than trying a different approach, I kept pushing and ignoring the “creative voices” screaming at me to do better.

Well the universe will always get it’s way. My “that will have to do” version of the show was complete and I started the upload process to my show site. Thats when things started to get interesting.

My internet connection went down and refused to come back for the rest of the evening. Then suddenly, as I was saving the project to my hard drive the computer crashed. Gone were hours of editing. All of the original audio files were intact, but the project file was hosed. I had to start over from scratch.

I took a break and when I returned to the edit process I suddenly started to really hear the words that Sheri and I had said during our conversation. We had talked about the creative process and how being open to possibilities had led to some of her best work. I calmed my mind and suddenly a cleaner and more informative version of the show appeared. Her words and music fit together easily now and it took a fraction of the time I’d spent working on the “lost” version.

I had been reminded that just because my mind may be filled with many voices, not unlike sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant, I need to take time hear the voice that is leading me to my goal.

The finished product is now on my website. I have no doubt the same “voices” that have guided Sheri Miller and her work were present to make sure I produced content that we would both be proud of. I hope I’ve succeeded.

Don

The management of The Map Room have decided to close their doors. A full story on this can be found here.

I’ve always enjoyed checking out local and touring independent bands at this club and the staff was fun and friendly. Hopefully they will be back in some fashion soon.